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gojuo · 1 year

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Tell us now your top 5 most hated characters on ASOAIF and F&B please!

My no.1 most hated ASOIAF character is Tywin Lannister. I hate this man. I hate him very much. I wish he would go away and die somewhere where he will inconvenience no one but the vultures. I loathe his manner. I loathe his style. I loathe the fact that he dares draw breath in a world where my loved ones do not or rather cannot because he murdered them. I loathe that he was rewarded for behavior which, in-universe, he should have been quartered for. I want him dead. I want to kill him and destroy him. I want him died. #SCENE #ANGER #FUCK #DIE #HATERED

There is not a single ounce — not even a miniscule amount — of sympathy I have for this scumbag. Not a single thing likeable about him. Not a single redeeming quality he has to his name. From the first moment he showed up on page until the very last mention of him, he was nothing short of disgusting. He is diabolical, satanic, monstrous, loathsome, ghoulish, sadistic, cruel, insert every single synonym of the term demonic here, etc. etc. I hate him. I hate him I hate him I hate him I hate him.

The whole “Yeah he’s evil uwu but Charles Dance is so granddaddy I can fix him <3" sales pitch this low IQ fandom has been pushing since the dawn of that accursed adaptation on top of it all only makes the intense disgust I hold for him so much fucking worse. Tywin Lannister has no conscience, no charisma, no morals, and he has no honor — all of that in an un-sexy way, one of the greatest crimes a villain with no traumatic backstory could objectively ever commit. Never mind the beyond immoral execution of the Red Wedding (“Machiavellian” my ass. Any stupid fool who says this crap needs to go back to elementary school in order to relearn how to read and how to interpret literature and themes in literature right the fuck now), never mind the severe mental torture he’s put his own flesh and blood through to the point where two of them are in a destructive incestuous relationship with each other and the other pushed to the point of patricide, this monster had his son's fourteen-year-old little child-wife gangraped by his guards, had each of them give her a silver coin after one was done with her, then had thirteen-year-old Tyrion rape her last and, contrary to the others, give her a gold coin because “Lannisters are worth more”. All because she was a common-born little girl who dared to marry the disabled son he hated so much. Am I supposed to think this piece of shit falls under the sexy evil category of villains? What sad backstory does this trash have to his name that would woobify him enough to “if villain bad why sexy” him? His father had a few mistresses after his mother died and gave them gifts and cared for them? Was that the tragic past of his that elevated him enough for people to wash their conscience clean so to cross moral boundaries all to lust after this so-called “sexy villain”? Tywin Lannister had his father’s mistress, who was nothing but a poor common-born daughter of a candle-maker, stripped naked and paraded through the streets of Lannisport for two whole goddamn weeks, and forced her to tell every man she came across that she was a thief and a whore, quite alike to what he did to Tysha as well. This man hates women. I cannot stress this enough, like Tywin Lannister hates women. And not just women, but especially commoner women. His modus operandi is inflicting sadistic sexual violence on any and all women he doesn’t like (which is like, all of them). As a true “if villain bad then why sexy” connoisseur and quite frankly, the president of the club, this man is not, never was and never will be a part of that esteemed category of villains.

And you know something that’s a veeery personal ick of mine — and this is really the icing on the cake for me — is shit-for-brains dickriders of this ghoul having the gall to pretend like he did not explicitly order the murder of Elia and her babies, that he apparently just “let” Clegane and Lorch loose on them. These low IQ fucks know what that demon did to his father’s poor mistress and what he did to little Tysha, and then somehow they still think this sadist with a severely fragile ego did not tell Clegane and Lorch to do what they did to her with his own mouth? Any waste-of-space who parrots this BNF-drivel (all said in order to minimize what happened to Elia, Rhaenys and the baby in place for Aegon) is not only going on my blocklist like immediately, they also need to die. Respectfully.

Now, I mostly spoke on his character from a moral standpoint, but I want to make clear that this loser’s shortcomings aren’t only morality-based. All the shit-for-brains stans this demon has know he has no morals so they always deflect to the “b-b-but he’s a military genius, that’s why I like him, I’m so edgy!!!” excuse and I want to emphasize how fucking stupid you have to be to believe Tywin is anything but brainless. AFFC is literally right there. GRRM’s explicitly spells out to the reader through Jaime’s POV how fucking stupid Tywin was in everything that he did. How the only show of military genius this demon had was through being nothing but a bully. All his work unraveled the second he died. He built nothing, and he will go down in history as nothing. That’s why his one and only legacy will always be that he got murdered on the shitter by his own son, like the fucking loser that he is.

I hate this fucking character with every fiber of my being.

On number 2 stands Aerys II Targeryen. Do I even need to explain this? What I said about Tywin applies to this racist, rapist, fascist piece of shit as well. I’m not going to waste my time and money psychoanalyzing this bottom-of-the-barrel trash. Aerys is the pinnacular culmination of three hundred years of Targaryen delusion, self-worship, egotism and five thousand years of Valyrian hubris, god-complex, and megalomania. Him and his daughter both, but I’ll get to her in a minute. This man’s lucky he’s only got 2 stans — and those two are only stanning just to be contrarians — unlike Tywin, who’s got an actual dedicated fanbase. Ugh. Two peas in a pod. One edge he has over Tywin is that at the very least Aerys has some sort of tragic backstory that’s actually valid. Too bad for him idgaf. Pour one out for Rhaella :(

My third most hated is ... Daenerys. Man… How do I even open this can of worms… I’ve a whole tag dedicated to hating her, soooo awkwardly waves hand in that direction. Everything about Daenerys is just so … racist. Racist on an in-universe level, racist on a meta level and racist on a fandom level, so I was never going to like Daenerys no matter what. The fact that she has the most insane and delusional and downright disgusting fanbase ever in all of media history really doesn’t help her case. If they hadn’t been this rabid and racist, then I don’t think I would have hated her this much. Because then I could’ve just had her character be as she is: the Paul Astreides of the series. A false Messiah, basically. The meta-level racism (GRRM making every single antagonist in her plotline nothing but walking, talking Reel Bad Arabs tropes; the use of POV trap which leads to none of the brown and black supporting characters in her story having a voice; GRRM’s own racism as in exotic-erotic tropes for all of the Essosi people, really badly researched POC cultures he based the Essosi off of, using brown and black people as nothing but props for the main white girl) and Daenerys’ in-universe racism (conquering and colonizing lands and peoples; white saviorism; imperialism; her hypocritical use of slavery) would still be there, of course, and I still would not have been able to stomach it meaning I still would not have rooted for her in any way, but then at the very least I would not have been subjected to a long decade of fandom racism being justified through the excuse of her freeing slaves from evil Reel Bad Arabs (spoiler alert: she is not freeing anybody).

Ugh, I don’t wanna talk about her. Everything about her from her character to the plot and storyline and her place in the narrative is downright insulting to me as a WOC, and quite frankly, any WOC that lays down their lives to defend this girl baffles me. Like, stop it. Please have some self-respect.

Then comes Jaehaerys the Old King. Father and inventor of misogyny. It’s crazy.

No. 5 is Rhaenys I and Daeron I the Young Dragon. EVERY TONGUE THAT RISES AGAINST THE DORNISH SHALL FALL!!!

#im sorry it took me so long to answer i have no excuse :(#asoiaf #tywin #aerys ii #daenerys #anti daenerys #jaehaerys i #rhaenys i #daeron the young dragon #anonymous #answered

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sir-subpar · 1 year

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Nabnab Reimagined!

Details down below

Like I said Donna I made him look very different. I wanted him to look more like a spider. But that's not all!

To me it seems like he someone encourages bad behavior or is meant to be an archetype of what not to do ( kind of like those anti-bullying videos teachers show to kids, or those don't talk to strangers videos. )

I took a little bit of inspiration from characters like the Hamburglar and swiper, making him a bit of a thief

I kept the blue, cuz I figured it still looks nice and made him look different from Banban (since it's pretty obvious he's meant to be the opposite, I mean his name is literally BanBan backwards lmao)

I don't think he would be a major threat overall, more of just an inconvenience. That's how he came across in the game to me. He seemed more inconvenient than anything.

So I went with the idea that he steals random items from the player or slows them down with his spider web traps

Since he's the opposite of BanBan, I feel like he shouldn't wear a party hat, so I gave him a beanie. I don't hate the party hat or anything, I just feel like this made more sense to me especially with what I did

And yes, in his more monsterous design he is missing an arm. I figured it would kind of show that things have been rough for him and the other monsters

What do you guys think?

#nabnab #garten of banban #reimagined #I need sleep

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tildeathiwillwrite · 4 months

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1 and 4 for the character ask game? For any character you'd like (lol I'm just indecisive 😅)

(in reference to this ask game)

I know the feeling love. That's why I have the Wheel to decide!

The Wheel chose... Octavian!

1. What is your character's reaction to a minor inconvenience? Such as getting their jumper caught on a door handle?

It depends on how frayed his rope is, in a manner of speaking. If he's fairly calm, internally, he will just continue on, correct anything that needs to be corrected, and remain outwardly neutral.

If his rope is incredibly frayed, with a few thin strands left, the minor inconvenience might be the thing that snaps the rope. Externally, he might not appear to have much of a reaction beyond a minor bout of exasperation, but internally he's a mess.

4. What do they consider to be an unforgivable action? Why?

My man---er, elf--- is lawful good who spirals into neutral good, so the list was once organized but has devolved into utter chaos. This is especially so after he befriends Draven, who has a looser moral code than Octavian and may or may not have been a bad influence (Draven would argue good influence, but I digress).

Top of the list would be using resources---magic, skills, etc---in order to take advantage of others. Let's just say that he feels that way due to personal experience (*cough, cough* the events of The Watcher and the Thief).

#thanks for the ask!#oc ask game #ask game #octavian de silv #my ocs #tales from valaria #tfv

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frongle-art · 2 years

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this will probably reach like 3 people ever but i might as well work something out. any further input or reccomendations are appreciated

rn i have a shitload of characters but I'll list the ones that I'd probably be posting on here about first

Frongle

I guess this one is my main? I started using him for pfps on discord and tumblr as well as a dnd character. He came from the character creation screen of Star Trek Online after I decided to make a character that was the antithesis of all the overly muscular, handsome, superman lookin ass avatars everyone else was using.

He's short, chunky, pesto green with yellow streaks across his face, and wears an old-timey rich man's suit with a top hat, as well as some enormous goggles that help him see in the brightness of surface light conditions.

He sweats this unpleasant foul-smelling poisonous gunk and has limited abilities in psychic persuasion and short-range telekinesis.

He is a prolific thief and a constant nuisance to anyone who has to work with him. Despite his profound annoyance, he has also managed to avert multiple galactic crises, which has granted him diplomatic immunity and further fuels his pride and self-importance.

He flies around in a stolen carrier flagship that used to belong to a demon race that presented one of the aforementioned galactic crises. He uses the power of this ship to go anywhere and give anyone he doesn't like a big punch, a migraine, a planted piece of contraband material, or some other petty inconvenience.

in the dnd campaign he acquired a cane that allowed him to summon a jojo-style stand that just looked like him but larger called 「hooligan heaven」 that would stride towards a location (like that one video of the plague doctor cosplayer) with incredible force while blasting various bootlegs of gangster's paradise.

frongle also used psychic ventriloquism to make a fish (which he had slain via farting in it's river) float in the air and speak, and he convinced himself that the fish was actually alive, which led to it essentially becoming an embodied version of the unseen servant spell. that was a weird campaign.

ok damn i guess i just wrote his bio post here but yeah the other ones are:

Gourdside

(pirate cursed by a god of plenty to be transformed into a pumpkin-headed humanoid with extendable vine-arms and a big hook. made them for a game art/design project)

AIPI (Artificially Intelligent Private Investigator)

security android that wears sherlock-ish outfits and has a head that resembles a coffee machine. it started out as another star trek online character but also got used for a game art/design project. i have it written into a two seperate storylines, one where it wakes up in a city full of servitor robots where all the humans have gone missing, and another one where it acts as a space government agent who doesn't care much about it's job and hangs out with frongle under the pretence of following it's assignment of keeping an eye on him.

Stone Golems

An assortment of golems that are part of my currently private worldbuilding project but I will probably post about some of them on here, especially if my intentions for that project change or if any version of it goes public in some way.

I have alot of details on how they work, where they came from, etc. and i can probably talk for hours about how it all works and it would probably lead into all the other lore about the world they're in. Currently I have:

Trip - a small Shardling (any golem twice the size of a human or smaller) that runs a bakery. It has a long, teardrop-shaped head and sloth-like bodily proportions

Pin - a Dustlet (the smallest kind of golem, a label that also includes non-sentient artefacts that run off the same magic as other golems) that resides in Trip's bakery and likes using it's tiny body as a rolling pin to help flatten dough.

Clobber - a Lesser Stone Golem (about the size of the drivable part of a truck) that closely aligned itself with a mortal race that became a powerful empire built on honour, craftsmanship and strength. It acts as a keeper of historical lore as well as an advisor to whoever is currently in charge.

Stack - a tall Shardling (about twice as tall as humans can be) that loves to build things and has a head shaped like a bowl.

Tumble - a stout, wheel-shaped Shardling (think like the size of a Monster Jam truck wheel) whose core was once trapped and being used as a grindstone by an ancient blacksmith.

Trod - a tortoise-like Greater Stone Golem (big enough to enjoy pretending it's a hill) that likes to sit somewhere and wait for someone to build a path near it so it can have someone talk to from time to time.

Clutch - another Greater Stone Golem that lumbers around the world and acts as a mobile sanctuary for Dustlets and Shardlings that are otherwise unable to fend for themselves, giving them the chance to safely explore the world without the threat of being abducted and experimented on by mages.

Yonder - a Stone Titan (fuckin HUGE, the LARGEST one that's still around) that was one of the first to be built and the only Titan that wasn't shattered into the pieces that formed all the Golems that wander the world. Big enough to inspire a legend that describes trees reaching an age where they decide to get up and walk around. It has a wide head (sort of like a hammerhead shark) and many-limbed quadrupedal body that imitates the form of it's long-extinct creators.

Wimguf

fucked up looking giant bowling pin lookin green sloth thing. most recent character so it doesn't have much lore yet. made it by photoshopping the wise mystical tree onto some concept art i found of uncle fungus from ice age and then stretching it really tall. I like his potential but it hasn't had much development yet.

Most of my characters go by either he, it, they or a combination of those. I will probably have some women enter this roster at some point but alot of these tend to come from interpretations of some aspect of myself. I recognise the importance of feminine representation but I am yet to confidently approach it in my character design.

For now it's a bunch of funky non-human characters that don't necessarily fit into the binary anyway and probably get whatever pronouns they may have more from how others would perceive them rather than how they see themselves.

I am continuing to write more characters and as I go more into the human/human-like races of my worldbuilding project there'll be a bit more gender variety.

#frongle lore #original characters #man this took a solid 2 hours or something #should be a good start-off for this blog so i can start posting the things whizzing around in my brain instead of just rbing

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theggning · 3 years

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I Hate the Alternate Ending of Blind Betrayal, and Here's Why!

DISCLAIMER THE FIRST: Massive spoilers for Fallout 4 abound. This post discusses Blind Betrayal, a quest with suicide as a heavy theme. Content warning applies.

DISCLAIMER THE SECOND: This post discusses cut OFFICIAL content from Fallout 4 that has since been repurposed into multiple mods. I am not criticizing any modders or their implementations of this content. Mods are fun and people can enjoy whatever the hell kind of game experience they want with whatever mods they want.

I am ONLY interested in discussing the original cut content as Bethesda had written it, and how it would have impacted the story and lore of Fallout 4.

So, yeah, it seems there was originally going to be another way to conclude Blind Betrayal (BB).

As described in this Kotaku article (citing this post by Tumblr user tentacle-explosion,) there are unused audio files of Danse’s dialogue that show an alternate ending to his pivotal quest. These lines are the only evidence we have of this ending (suggesting that it was cut fairly early on, as no other actors/characters seem to have recorded for it.)

From what we can tell, in this alternate ending of BB, Danse comes up with a possible way out of the sticky situation re: his identity as a synth. According to the Brotherhood Litany, he is able to challenge Maxson’s authority as Elder via combat. If you agree to this idea, you go with Danse to challenge Maxson. The Paladin and the Elder duel one another, Danse wins, and Maxson dies. Then Danse names the Sole Survivor the new Elder-- or with a hard charisma check, you’re able to convince Danse to take the job himself. It is unknown how the main plot would have progressed beyond this point, as there is no other evidence of what being (or influencing) the Elder would have been like or what choices it would have given you.

There is understandable disappointment in learning that this ending was cut. Choices in games are great, and it could have been fun to have multiple different options for how to resolve the quest. In many gaming circles, people complain that this theoretical ending is superior to the one we got and shouldn’t have been axed. The Kotaku article calls it a “way better” ending, and you’ll see many players lamenting that it wasn’t implemented, saying Bethesda was bad at writing for cutting it, etc.

So why did Bethesda get rid of the Elder ending of BB?

In December 2020, after the Fallout 4 Cast Reunion, Danse’s voice actor Peter Jessop answered questions in a private signing session on his Instagram. Peter Jessop is an extremely kind and gracious man, an avid gamer, and a huge fan of Fallout. During the stream, he reflected on the alternate ending and remembered recording the lines, but stated the content was ultimately cut because Bethesda decided it was lore-breaking.

Peter Jessop is right. Bethesda was right. The Elder ending of BB is a bunch of dumb nonsense. It sucks, I hate it, and I’m glad they got rid of it. And now I’m going to tell you why!

SIDENOTE: King Shit of Fuck Mountain

There is no wrong way to play a single-player video game. If you are having fun, then you are accomplishing the task for which the game was made. Good for you! Play it on easy. Play it on hard. Mod it. Speedrun it. Make up an intricate roleplaying scenario. Perform “challenge” runs. Kill everybody you see. Ignore the story and run around collecting wheels of cheese. Games are meant to be fun and there is nothing wrong with enjoying a game however you damn well please. This is especially true for RPGs like Fallout, which are designed with player freedom in mind.

There is an RPG playstyle I like to call King Shit of Fuck Mountain: a naked power fantasy in which your protagonist is the most powerful person ever, even beyond normal RPG plot significance. Through brute strength, incredible charisma, or having completed tons of quests for world-breaking artifacts and weapons, your character wields godlike influence, able to control people, factions, and the fabric of the world itself. A game enables KSoFM gameplay when it allows the player limitless freedom to gain as much power as they like with zero consequences to plot or storytelling.

A great example of this is the Dragonborn in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. If the player chooses to pursue every questline in the game, one single person can become Harbinger of the Companions, Archmage of the College of Winterhold, Listener of the Dark Brotherhood, Nightingale and Guildmaster of the Thieves’ Guild, hero of the Imperial/Stormcloak army, the chosen one of like, 11 different Daedric princes, a bard, a Blade, and otherwise just, absurdly goddamn powerful in completely unrealistic ways. And that’s not counting DLCs. A fully-kitted-out Dragonborn is King Shit of Fuck Mountain.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with playing KSoFM if you like to. But I’m not a big fan of this style, personally. Sure, my first Skyrim character became KSoFM while I was figuring out the game, but after my first playthrough I preferred my characters become coherent figures in the story of the world. I pick one or two character traits and things that my Dragonborn is good at, focus on them, and make them part of some overall story. My honorable Imperial paladin werewolf is in the Companions, and hunts vampires on principle. My Argonian sneaky archer is a gleeful thief, but would never jive with the College or the Dark Brotherhood. I like creating protagonists who fit into these settings immersively. I don’t care about power fantasies or being in charge. I don’t WANT my character to be all-powerful, because that ruins my immersion and my little story.

Additionally, in a plot-driven story-focused game like Fallout, KSoFM tears the narrative apart. Skyrim is fairly light on story, so the Dragonborn can be the leader of the Companions and the Dark Brotherhood and whatever other factions without any of them noticing or caring. But FO4’s themes, faction drama, and the main thrust of the plot don’t work at all if the Sole Survivor is able to become too powerful or too influential. The Sole Survivor cannot become the leader of every faction, solve every problem, or eliminate every inconvenient bend of the conflict because it makes the lore of the entire setting implode. Thus, the game forces you to choose between factions. You cannot be with the Minutemen and the Nuka-World Raiders. You cannot be with the Railroad and the Institute. And you cannot become Elder of the Brotherhood of Steel.

So if you’re the kind of person who loves playing KSoFM, if you like plots that your character can “solve” with relative ease, or if you just think it would be super cool for your Sole to become Elder regardless of surrounding storytelling, then you might think the Elder ending sounds super cool. You are absolutely allowed to disagree with me here. Install all the mods and write all the fic and have all the headcanons you like. I respect that. There is no wrong way to enjoy a single-player video game. Have fun!

But if you’re a big nitpicky pedantic lore nerd like me, a fan of cohesive storytelling, or if you just want to hear how the Elder ending of BB absolutely fucking ruins Maxson, Danse, the Brotherhood of Steel, and the entire plot of FO4 from a narrative perspective, read on!

1. The Synth Thing

The Elder ending requires the stupid plot contrivance of the BoS forgetting about Danse’s synthhood.

One of the biggest problems with the BoS as an institution is their strict and dogmatic beliefs, which include a widespread dislike of non-human species. Perhaps more than any other non-humans, the BoS hates synths. Synths are, in their eyes, machines given free will, a violation of the sanctity of human life and the ultimate example of technology run amok. To them, synths are not sympathetic, they are not slaves, and they are not victims of circumstance. They are weapons that left unchecked will destroy all of humanity for a second time. Synths are anathema to everything the BoS stands for, and finding out that one of their most beloved and trusted Paladins is one is an earth-shattering blow to their integrity and sense of security.

It is completely absurd that the BoS would allow a synth within their ranks, particularly as they are waging war against the Institute, who created synths in the first place. It is even MORE absurd that they’d allow one to influence their Elder, or even worse, to become Elder. It completely undermines their mission in the Commonwealth, and the core tenets of their extremely rigid beliefs. No matter the Elder, no matter the Litany or obscure BoS law, no matter how valuable the Sole Survivor is as a soldier or how much influence they wield. Danse is a synth. He’s the enemy. He is physically the embodiment of everything they hate.

Not only wouldn’t they trust a synth in general, but the BoS specifically believes that Danse is an infiltrator for the Institute. Even Danse believes that he is a danger, that the Institute may be able to take control of him and use him as a weapon. Sure, we know none of this is actually true, or possible, but the BoS don’t know that. And given how quick they are to order Danse dead without even the possibility of surrender, I don’t think there’s any charisma in the world that’s going to convince them otherwise.

According to Peter Jessop, this, ultimately, is the reason why the Elder ending was cut. He talks about it around the 11:30 timestamp in his Instagram stream, linked above:

“We recorded an ending where you keep Danse alive and you take over the Brotherhood. But there was a question of content… there’s no way the Brotherhood, once they knew he was a synth, would let him be even the right hand of the person in charge.”

Bethesda correctly recognized the incredible narrative contrivance for the BoS to shrug off the reason they’re trying to execute Danse in the first place. Whatever other beefs I have with this ending conceptually, they all come in second to just what a big dumb leap it is to get beyond this first and most important problem.

2. The Complete Death of Conflict

The Elder ending of BB destroys the conflict of the quest, and potentially the conflict of the entire game.

Greed is a poison. There is no such thing as a perfect ideal or a perfect organization. Power corrupts. Humanity has the choice to build back better. War never changes. The Fallout games are full of themes, depicted by the characters and quests and factions we play out.

Blind Betrayal is rightfully praised as one of the most powerful quests in FO4. Not only is it well-acted, but it puts the player in a very difficult position. The BoS has given you clout and glory and free power armor and lots of firepower, but now you see the price: unquestioning obedience. You are ordered to execute your friend and mentor Danse for the mere fact he is a synth. Are you going to follow that unjust order? Are you willing to give up your principles on command? Or is this where you can no longer stay quiet and stay in line?

To be honest, I’ve always thought the fact you can talk Maxson out of killing Danse but still remain with the BoS in good standing was a cop-out. BB goes 90% of the way to forcing you to choose between a companion and a faction, and then chickens out at the last second to let you have both, if your charisma is high enough.

(I believe this has the fingerprints of Skyrim’s development on it-- Bethesda’s writers got nervous about doing another Paarthurnax choice involving the fan favorite Brotherhood of Steel. That’s right. Danse is the Paarthurnax of Fallout. Frankly, I understand why they chose not to go there, but damn, wouldn’t it have been wild? You want to run with the BoS? Then kill your friend and feel the burn. THIS is what it means to follow orders without question.

As for me, I’d pick Danse every time and sleep soundly without the company of shitty bootlicking dieselpunk LARPers- but I digress.)

Anyway, you know what would have REALLY been a copout? If the game asked you to make a difficult thematic storyline choice, and you solved the problem by just not choosing at all.

You are supposed to feel uncomfortable when Maxson orders you to kill Danse, because the game is telling a story about how it is maybe a bad thing to thoughtlessly follow orders without question. It is asking you to think about what the BoS is, what they are doing, and how they are going to run things, if you choose to let them “win” the Commonwealth. It is pointing out that there is no room for gray in the BoS’ black and white. That a good, loyal man may die because of the way he was made, through no action of his own. That soon, you’ll be killing other people on command. The Railroad. Fleeing Institute synths and scientists. Others, down the line. It all depends on who’s giving the orders. Are you going to follow those orders?

Eesh, that sounds thought-provoking and unpleasant and difficult! Let’s just skip it by killing Maxson and making ourselves the boss. Now we get to tell everybody else what to do!

It’s unknown what powers the Elder ending would have granted the player, or how it would have interacted with the other factions. There is speculation that you’d have been able to ease back on the BoS’ dogmatism, or change some of the later events of the game. For instance, perhaps you could talk the BoS down from attacking the Railroad, sparing popular characters like Glory and Deacon who must die in the normal BoS storyline. Perhaps you could have made the BoS a kinder, gentler faction and directed them to run the way you want them to.

If this was indeed the case, then the Elder ending would not only suck the gravitas out of BB, but torpedo the entire main plot.

If you can get rid of any and all downsides to siding with the BoS, why in the hell would players side with anybody else? With the player given total power, the BoS becomes a perfect faction with no drawbacks, no weaknesses, no tough decisions to be made. Screw slumming it with the Railroad or the Minutemen, let’s take over the BoS. Free power armor and a giant robot! Forget the whole intolerance thing, I hereby proclaim the BoS No Longer Problematic! Now to force all the factions to get along, completely removing all conflict and nuance from the plot!

That’s some real anticlimactic “tell Legate Lanius to go home and then he does it” bullshit right there. King Shit of Fuck Mountain!

Look, it might be nice if there was a perfect path like that to take through the game. It would be cool if our characters could be that powerful and the game was that tailored to our individual choices. On the other hand, “I change all the factions to suit my exact liking” might be a fun idea for a fanfic, but it’s an incredibly boring plot for a video game. “I get to make everything in the world exactly how I want it” is Minecraft, not a story-driven RPG with a complex and intricate plot.

It would be great if complex conflicts could really be solved that easily and effortlessly, but hey, you know what? War never changes.

3. The Assassination of Arthur Maxson (Literal)

Arthur Maxson’s death is too significant and fundamentally disastrous for the Elder ending to make any sense at all.

Hero, villain, leader, monster, tortured soul, brutal dictator, immature twerp, bearded sex hunk. However you personally interpret Arthur Maxson, there is no denying that he is a venerated, popular, beloved figure in the BoS. He is the blood heir of the organization’s founder, a powerful warrior, a brilliant tactician, and a charismatic negotiator. He is responsible for reuniting the East Coast BoS with the Outcasts, leading the new, stronger BoS with a sense of shared purpose. There is a damn good reason his name is Arthur and he named his ship The Prydwen, echoes of King Arthur and the legends of his glorious kingdom of Camelot. Arthur Maxson is so beloved that many view him as a demigod, a messiah sent to lead the BoS into a mighty and prosperous future.

So I’m sure nobody’s going to be upset when some wasteland jackass recruited a month ago stumbles in with a synth, kills him, and takes over his job. Right?

It doesn’t matter that it’s “honorable.” It doesn’t matter that it’s done “by the book” via obscure BoS rules. There is no codex or litany or rule so binding that it’s going to overcome the cult of personality around Maxson. There is no way that the BoS is going to accept the death of Arthur Maxson, a man whose reverence borders on worship, especially not when he is immediately replaced by a wastelander, or a synth.

The death of Arthur Maxson removes the unifying glue that’s been holding the BoS together since mending the rift with the Outcasts. Maxson’s death eliminates the one person that both sides of that conflict agreed could steer the organization in the right direction. Some level heads may try to keep the focus on the mission and the Brotherhood tenets, but Maxson loyalists will never forgive the new Elder for his death, and that amount of passionate righteous anger will not be quelled by appeals to the rules. The new Elder’s war on the Institute is basically over before it begins, when the forces splinter and start infighting over the change in leadership.

And this is if the new Elder lives long enough to actually give any orders. I give them around 24 hours after the duel before some angry Maxson loyalist “accidentally” pulls the trigger and “tragically” empties a clip into their back.

24 seconds, if it’s Elder Danse, the dirty synth abomination.

4. The Assassination of Arthur Maxson (Figurative)

The Elder ending of BB falsely pretends that Arthur Maxson is the biggest and only problem with the BoS.

In the Elder ending, as written, the conflict of BB is considered completely and totally solved by the death of Arthur Maxson. The core problem, that Danse is a synth and considered an enemy by the BoS, has not gone away. But by getting rid of Maxson, this apparently no longer matters. Nobody else is going to take offense to Danse’s nature or protest his presence. Nobody else is going to attack him or try to follow through with Maxson’s prior orders. Nope, that meanybutt guy who gave the order is gone, and everybody else is going to welcome Danse back into the fold like nothing ever happened.

I touched on this a little bit on an ask about Maxson a few weeks back, but a lot of people seem to believe that the FO4 Brotherhood of Steel is the way they are purely because of him. That he is the one making them treat non-humans as second class citizens at best, and enemies to be slaughtered at worst. That it’s his fault the BoS is so vehemently against synths and the Institute. That he is the one influencing their imperialistic tendencies, and treating the Commonwealth like territory to be conquered and people to be ruled over by their betters.

He’s not. That’s the Brotherhood of Steel, guys.

The charitable, altruistic, virtuous BoS that many of us met for the first time in FO3 were outliers. Lyons’ group was literally disowned by the rest of the faction because their kindness to wastelanders had gone so far astray from the “core” tenets. The BoS as a whole has always been exclusive, isolated, and seen themselves as “superior” to the average wastelander. They have long disliked or outright hated non-humans (and even Lyons’ BoS in FO3 use ghouls, feral or not, for “target practice” if they get too close!) The rigid dogmatism of the BoS is not something that Arthur Maxson started, but has always been part of their fabric.

Now, it’s true that Maxson is absolutely going hard on the BoS tenets, and extremely dedicated to upholding them. His BoS are the way they are and act the way they act because he believes that this is the way it should be. Is it possible that a different leader may be a little more flexible? Absolutely. Could a skilled Elder eventually show them the benefits of a softer approach and a more generous worldview? Totally. Is getting rid of Maxson and replacing him going to make that happen overnight, or going to make the rest of the BoS who supported him shrug and follow suit?

Nope.

Blaming Arthur Maxson for everything unsavory about the Brotherhood is unfair to him and also foolishly ignoring the deep, massive problems that are far older than he is-- problems that plenty of its members wholeheartedly believe are not problems at all. Getting rid of Maxson does not make the BoS kinder or gentler. Even pretending Maxson isn’t as personally beloved as he is, any new Elder who steps in and starts trying to fundamentally alter the way the BoS operates and what they believe in is going to face some major, immediate pushback.

Like, a full clip of bullets in the back type of pushback.

In the face if it’s Elder Danse, the godless freak of nature.

5. The Un-Redemption of Paladin Danse

Last, and my personal least favorite!

At first glance, Paladin Danse is a steely jackboot, a die-hard Brotherhood loyalist who fully and firmly believes in their cause. Many immediately dismiss him as a humorless brute, or completely ignore him because they think that’s all there is. But if you spend any time with Danse at all, you’ll notice a sort of weariness in him. He is tired, overworked, and his years of service are starting to weigh on him. He has watched friends, comrades, and mentors die in horrible and gruesome ways, and he suffers from PTSD. Though he has always been told that his own sacrifices, the sacrifices of his brothers and sisters have been” worth it,” he’s starting to question if that’s true.

After telling of the incident where he personally executed his best friend Cutler, who’d been turned into a super mutant, the Sole Survivor is able to console him:

Player Default: You did the right thing. Danse: {Somber} It's what I was taught. I don't know if it was right.

This line is an excellent summary of Danse’s entire character arc. He learns to question whether to believe what the Brotherhood has taught him, or to believe in himself. His gut feelings. His sense of justice and his own ideas of what’s right and wrong.

(In the interest of not turning this into an essay about Danse’s character, I won’t even get into how this also applies to his beliefs about his worth as a person. But keep in mind, that dimension is there, Danse just covers it up by making everything about the Brotherhood.)

During Blind Betrayal, after getting the orders to execute him and hearing Haylen’s plea for mercy, we may expect Danse to be ready to fight back or flee. But when you confront him in the bunker at Listening Post Bravo, he’s compliant and suicidal. Danse is so deeply poisoned by the BoS’ rhetoric that his own feelings or will to live don’t factor into the conversation. He demands that you follow your orders and execute him, because he believes, as the BoS does, that all synths are dangerous and must be destroyed.

Danse: {Stern} Synths can't be trusted. Machines were never meant to make their own decisions, they need to be controlled. Technology that's run amok is what brought the entire world to its knees and humanity to the brink of extinction.

{Confident} I need to be the example, not the exception.

Through various dialogue options, if your charisma is high enough, you are able to talk Danse off the ledge. He is able to consider, at least, that the BoS’ merciless judgment of him is wrong and that what he was taught isn’t right. He is a thinking, feeling, self-aware synth, and that makes him as much a person as any human. Danse is no danger to humanity-- and maybe, most synths aren’t either.

Danse is an example, not an exception.

Later on, if you manage to get him out of BB alive, Danse shows further acceptance of his nature. His approvals about synths begin to soften slightly (or many of them do, at least… it’s not perfect.) He is still struggling with his identity and reconciling it with his former hatred, but his dialogue suggests that he’s on the road to being more open-minded and understanding. Along with this, Danse learns that he has value as a person beyond the Brotherhood. He no longer needs to define himself with BoS beliefs or judge himself by how useful he is to them. He learns that he is worth caring about, worth being friends with or being loved because of who he is-- not what he is, in any regard.

[SIDENOTE: Many players, myself included, are frustrated that Danse’s arc leaves off sort of midstream there. Due to the open-ended nature of the game, we don’t get a real conclusion to his arc-- even though much of his idle dialogue doesn’t change and he still espouses pro-BoS sentiments ( an unfortunate by-product of writing for a video game) there is every indication that he’s started down the right path, but understandably has a ways to go.

Also, Peter Jessop agrees with us.]

Meanwhile, in the Elder ending, Danse doesn’t get a redemption. His entire character arc, actually, hits the skids and does a total 180.

He never leaves the BoS. So scratch the need for Danse to ever think about himself as separate from them. He never needs to question what they’ve taught him or whether they’re right or wrong. He never needs to find any worth in himself beyond his use to the BoS. Why would he? He might be the Elder. The BoS is all he needs to care about anymore. The BoS is all he ever needs to be, ever again.

And I think, most horrifying of all, this Danse never needs to change his mind about synths. On the contrary, one of the surviving dialogue files includes Danse’s speech to reassure the rest of the BoS of his stance:

Danse: I want to make one thing clear to everyone. This body might be synth, but my heart and mind belong to the Brotherhood. The Institute is still a tremendous threat to the Commonwealth. They possess technologies that need to be confiscated or destroyed. And even if that means I have to pull the trigger on my own kind, I’m willing to make that sacrifice.

Elder ending Danse doesn’t grow more understanding on the nature of synths. He doesn’t accept that synths are people, or anything more than technology run amok. He won’t even accept that for himself. Elder Maxson wasn’t wrong about synths-- they’re the enemy and they need to be destroyed.

But, see, he was wrong about Danse. It’s okay for Danse to exist in spite of his nature. It’s okay for him to never fully accept his own personhood, and to outright deny it to his kind. Because his body is a machine, but he’s different from the rest because his heart and mind belong to the Brotherhood.

He’s the exception, not the example.

CONCLUSION:

The Elder ending of Blind Betrayal is dumb, contrived, stakeless, character-derailing powergaming crap at its finest and I’ll happily dance on its grave.

People give Bethesda a lot a shit for their writing-- whether it be stuff they left out, stuff they left in, or stuff that they never, ever could have made work due to the limitations of writing for a video game. Plenty of it is well-deserved, or at least worth a discussion. But from the minute I found out about its existence, I have always wanted to extend a congratulations to Bethesda for cutting the alternate Elder ending of Blind Betrayal. It was a good choice. A very good choice to cut a very dumb plot that would have fundamentally altered the story they were telling, and characters that I’ve grown to love. I think the writers deserve some credit and a hearty handshake for the wisdom of this decision.

Now as for why Nick Valentine isn’t romanceable--

#fallout 4 #fallout meta #paladin danse #arthur maxson #blind betrayal #this one was a long time coming #any thematic resemblance to any fics of mine is a coincidence #the blind betrayal manifesto #king shit of fuck mountain #the initial intrigue of the idea wears off if you think about it more than not at all

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medusinestories · 3 years

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Onwards to the episode in which we get to see Flint and Silver each having a very bad day (as well as two literal dicks that nobody had asked to see).

Black Sails VII (s1 ep07)

- We open on Pastor Lambrick's sweaty face as he intensely rehearses the Easter sermon and he’s obviously eaten up by what he did with Miranda. His sermon, unsurprisingly, focuses on sin, keeping sin hidden, and the hell that awaits the sinner. Which leads us nicely onto Flint, who’s distracted (by his own sin? by thoughts of Miranda? both?) during a meeting with Eleanor. Eleanor is pissed that Miranda let Richard Guthrie send a message to the Andromache and then waltz into town to close up his business; Flint tries to take the heat off Miranda, once again protecting her (at this point, he may not know the contents of the letter).

- During this meeting, Flint is startled when Silver first speaks up to say that the mob in the street was bad - clearly Silver is a sort of intruder in this meeting. But Eleanor, after Silver reminds her by unsubtly clearing his throat, tells Flint that he’s not to harm Silver because he was instrumental in setting up the Consortium. Silver looks so pleased with himself in these scenes, and Flint quite defeated when he tells Silver to follow him back to their camp. I love it.

- To parallel Flint/Miranda’s Sulky Sex scene from ep4, we have Anne/Rackham’s frustrating/disconnected sex scene. It shows us a few things about them mainly that Anne wants to keep a lot of control over what happens, hence Rackham being tied up (though of course this might also be his kink), her wearing a shirt that covers up most of her body, and the reverse cowgirl position that means that she’s both in control of what happens and completely avoids eye contact. The position reminds us of the Flint/Miranda scene, where Miranda was also on top, but their scene involved more eye contact (yes glaring counts, he’s still intensely focused on Miranda), gentle touching (on Miranda’s side) and her being naked and open to him. Another parallel is that both Flint and Rackham aren’t in the right frame of mind for sex, Flint being angry and Rackham lost in a sea of worries (and probably also somewhat angry/disappointed at Anne for forcing him into the plot to kill their crewmates). The difference between Flint and Rackham is that while Flint doesn’t seem to have any trouble performing, Rackham is miles away and doesn’t even notice that he’s lost his erection - again. Anne is frustrated by this, and apparently knows him well enough that she offers to put something up his arse, but he’s clearly not in the mood, and she leaves in a huff, abandoning him all tied up as a sort of revenge for his performance problems. Whatever the problem is between them isn’t put into words (because Anne can’t yet, for starters), unlike the one between Flint and Miranda. The intimacy between Rackham and Anne, so often described as close partners, seems much more distant to me than the one shown between Flint and Miranda. I’m not sure whether it’s because of anyone’s sexual orientation, or just the fact that they’re fucking but they’ve never discussed the big important things, such as Anne’s identity/feelings/etc.

- In this episode, Dufresne gains a lot of power: with a freshly (and badly) shaved head and a new tattoo, he’s been promoted to Quartermaster on the Walrus in Billy’s place. And very quickly he has a problem to deal with: Randall revealing that Silver stole the page. Gates had actually already told this to Dufresne, as is revealed at the end of the episode, which might explain why Dufresne is relatively calm during the whole conversation, while DeGroot wants Silver and Flint hanged and Howell is surprisingly ruthless: he brings up the idea that it may be better to kill off Randall in order to get to the treasure, if they can’t make sure he’ll keep quiet about Silver being the thief. Dufresne is actually quite kind towards Silver in the scene where he puts Silver’s memory to the test - a test that could result in his death if he fails it and that Silver constantly grumbles against (I love his grumbling!). Basically, at this point Dufresne remains quite a sympathetic character, which will change a lot as the show goes on, especially after Jannes Eiselen had to leave the show (such a sad story, RIP Jannes).

- In the meantime, the Flint and Gates relationship is crumbling. It's sad to see, especially since they're shown sharing chuckles as they talk about Dufresne's appointment in the beginning of the episode. But then Gates brings up the subject of Miranda and demands explanations about the letter Billy found. We're not shown exactly what Flint answers, but it's clear that he's actually trying his best to give him an explanation without incriminating Miranda too badly. The sad thing is that Flint is actually telling the truth: he actually wasn't involved in any betrayal of his crew and and can only guess at Miranda's motivations. But the fact that he's lied time and again in previous situations, including on the Maria Aleyne where he claimed Lord Alfred drew a weapon on him (and Gates secretly verified that this was a lie), and used men as pawns to advance his and Miranda's plans, is now catching up to him. Flint seems truly hurt when Gates accuses him of using the men for his own purposes, and turns spiteful, telling Gates that he should have been "a better father" to Billy and helped him "understand the world he was living in" (suggesting that such a forthright character as Billy can't really survive in a world of pirates who are all ready to stab each other in the back). After that slap in the face, Gates says he's exhausted from Flint and threatens to take it to the crew. Somehow, this pushes Flint to bare all: he tells Gates about his plan to keep a part of the treasure and use it to build up Nassau, depicting himself as a sort of saviour, doing it for the men's good: they'd rather be rich men in a safe place than dead thieves hanging from a noose. Gates sees this as delusions of grandeur, and tells him that while he'll see the Urca plot through, after that they're done. I actually think he sees Flint’s point, since he doesn’t just throw him to the crew, but won’t admit that out loud. The whole of this scene hurts bad, because you can tell that Flint is desperate and sad to be losing his closest ally and friend, and that Gates is hurting from the loss of Billy and exhausted from the toxic relationship he has with Flint, where he's played enabler to his manipulations for years.

- While Flint and Gates’ alliance is breaking, Silver has to forge one with Randall or die. Randall finds out in the beginning of the episode that he’s been voted out of the crew. This is apparently due to DeGroot’s fears that Randall could be a fire hazard, which the crew took disproportionately to heart. Randall is furious with Silver, who smugly tells him that in these situations, a setback often comes with a new or unexpected opportunity. He’s right, but at this point he doesn’t know that he is the opportunity Randall’s going to latch on. Randall reveals that Silver is a thief, and Silver denies it, saying that Randall is both a halfwit and was in a haze of opium when he heard what he thought he heard; he even tries to convince Randall that he was mistaken (this, my friends, is gaslighting). However, by revealing that Silver was the thief, Randall sets a chain of events into motion which could either end with his death (if Howell has his way, since Randall is an inconvenient witness) or Silver’s (if DeGroot tips the balance, not trusting Silver to remember the coordinates and not wanting to sacrifice Randall for nothing). Silver figures out that these are the outcomes, and tries to talk sense into Randall by making a deal with him: he’ll care for Randall and make sure he can stay on the ship. But it’s only when Silver finally admits that he is the thief and that Randall was right, that Randall accepts the deal. Later, Silver realises that Randall might have orchestrated the whole thing: he’s now got Silver to serve him, doesn’t have to take any risks on the ship, and gets to remain with the crew. Silver wonders if Randall is a genius rather than a halfwit (a word thrown about a lot to describe him). And it seems quite obvious, considering what happened, that Randall still has strong survival skills (an amputee with impaired cognitive skills doesn’t stand a chance of survival outside a crew and he must be aware of it), that he still has a good memory and an ability to pick out useful information and that he’s aware enough of what’s going on to be upset by the crew’s rejection and Silver’s attempt to gaslight him. I think it’s important to recognise that Randall is more than a comic relief or a grotesque character: he’s a disabled man who's lost parts of his cognitive ability and is struggling to survive.

- This episode focuses on Vane facing his past. He seeks out the island where he grew up and its master, Albinus. I’d forgotten or never really registered that Albinus was a pirate and that the men who work for him were mostly his crew - and likely slaves (or children, hence Vane?) that he managed to capture/press into service. He’s retired from pirating and set up a system where his men cut down trees for timber all day, without wages. It’s not clear exactly how he holds so much power over these men, although it seems that everyone is terrified of him. He’s extremely strong physically, seems shrewd, speaks rather well, and his tattoos suggest that maybe he’s involved in some kind of ritual (truly religious or just for show?) which would make him all the more scary to superstitious people. Vane is clearly still frightened: he barely makes eye contact and practically stutters when he first tries to make the deal with Albinus, which is that he’ll take some of Albinus’ men as crew and send Albinus part of their earnings as tribute. It says a lot about Albinus that Vane, after years of having run away, is still so scares that he’s willing to pay him a tribute. But he changes his mind as he stares at a boy bearing the same brand as he does: he tries to persuade the men that Nassau is a pace of pleasures rather than hard labour, and confronts Albinus. The fight is brutal and ends with Vane buried naked, just after Albinus tells him that he’s proud of him. But of course Vane wouldn’t be Vane if he didn’t rise from the dead at the last minute and kill Albinus, goaded on by his inner Eleanor voice.

- In the meantime, Mr Scott returns to Eleanor, apologising for what he did, telling her he betrayed her out of love. However he also reminds her of his slave status: technically, he belongs to her. The argument upsets her, and he quite cleverly uses this moment to ask her to free the slaves who were on the Andromache. And it works: by the end of the episode, she’s made arrangements for the men to work on ships and has bought the women’s freedom and found them jobs in her tavern. But Mr Scott has still decided to leave Eleanor to join Hornigold’s crew, to refrain from meddling with Eleanor’s affairs, since he disagrees with her so strongly re: the Urca. Hornigold approached him earlier in the episode, and the introduction to that scene is quite interesting: Hornigold says to Mr Scott “I’ll need to know your secret” and Mr Scott looks startled and frightened. It seems that he’s startled because he’d been giving food to the slaves, but in light of S3, it could be a much greater secret that’s being referred to. Mr Scott is relieved when he realises that Hornigold is simply talking about tolerating Eleanor, who he clearly can’t stand.

- Flint’s bad day continues, of course, with the big confrontation he has with Miranda. He’s furious about the letter (of which he now knows the contents thanks to Gates), telling her that it could have got him killed, or destroyed the plans they’d made and asking her whether she was trying to embarrass him. This sounds so weirdly petty, and yet it also sounds exactly like the kind of argument that would come up in a bickering couple. Miranda answers that she was trying to help him out of that life, because she wants to move on. This is where Miranda utters the famous “there is no life here, there is no joy here, there is no love here”. I noticed that, covered by Flint yelling at her, and distorted because her voice has gone very shrill, Miranda says another line, which sounds like “you used to love, then”. If that really is what she says, it’s extra-extra-extra heartbreaking to hear (if someone wants to check it for me, it’s around 35:40). It’s obvious that Flint and Miranda’s views on life are very different, and I can’t help but think back to the fact that, as a carpenter’s son from the country, Flint has had to struggle all his life to become who he is. So when he says that you can’t get a life without having a war, and Miranda tells him he’s wrong, she’s speaking entirely from the point of view of her privilege. She’s never needed to fight as hard as he has to be happy, because she got extremely lucky in marrying Thomas. And when she says that Thomas would agree with her, I’m certain she’s right. But life has never been like that for Flint, and there’s no way he’ll ever entirely agree with their point of view. Rewatching this scene is tough, btw, because they both have great points, they’re both hurting so much, and there’s so much to take in between the body language, the facial expressions, the tones of voice and the actual words that it’s a whole whirlwind. And it feels very, very real.

- It’s absolutely hilarious to see Rackham get robbed by the whores taking advantage of his lack of knowledge (and research). He should absolutely have done a better job and has no clue how to run a brothel. He’s lucky Max takes things in hand after having heard from Idelle that the girls were taking advantage.

- Then we have the beautiful Drunk Flint scene. Eleanor notices him feeling very sorry for himself after Gates has pretty much broken up with him and he’s still reeling from fighting with by Miranda. I think Flint feels very misunderstood here. He thought that he was doing something good, to save Nassau and avenge Thomas, and doesn’t understand why they can’t see it, why they only see the terrible methods he uses to reach his goals. So he’s full of doubt, clearly wondering if he’s the villain of the story, and puts the question to Eleanor: is their plan worth it? Eleanor is the only person who still believes in him, which leads us to the only scene that I would ever call straight-baiting. Flint hovers near Eleanor, breathing heavily, and a variety of emotions play over her face during this moment of tension, as she seems to think this is leading to a kiss. It does, he gives her a chaste little forehead kiss and leaves. All the elements are in place to make your average viewer start shipping these two. I actually find it hilarious that the ship barely exists in the fandom (though I wasn’t there in the beginning of the fandom and I guess the viewership changed a lot between S1 and S4).

- The scene with Flint and Gates glaring at each other from their respective ships and Parson’s Farewell playing in the background... epic! We know this is the beginning of a big struggle between them, especially since we find out that Gates has pretty much decided that he’ll hand Flint over to the crew once they get the money. But nnnnggh that scene! The ships leaving on their hunt! Awesome and heartbreaking!

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cry-stars · 3 years

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For the character/oc, why not 2, 15 and 21! Don't have to do all three, just the ones you want too

Thank you so much for asking!! I picked Onyx for this since he's one of my favourite OCs right now.

2- What song(s) remind you of this character?

“How Soon is Now” by the Smiths reminds me of Onyx… I think that he was always a very shy person, staying at home with his parents most of the time. However, his parents died when he wasn’t quite an adult, and he was left with their company to run, and little else: “the son and the heir of nothing in particular.” He really had no friends, and no family left after his parents passed away. He was desperately lonely, and married the first lady that showed an interest in him, willingly oblivious to how she was only using him for his money, and in denial when she left him after she got tired of him-- “how dare you say I go about things the wrong way? I’m human and I need to be loved.” This song is perfect for him honestly fdjkhfdfd

Also, I really like Innocent Tyrant by Chogakusei for him! The character really looks like Onyx honestly fdjkfdfd and the song seems to kind of fit the “innocent” way that he tends to be callous and cruel sometimes, especially in his younger years, and especially in the Angel/Demon AU we have for him, where he used his angelic powers for selfish gain.

15- Favourite line of theirs?

Honestly, I don’t have too many good lines of his that stand well on their own… so much of what I write for him is inner monologue :’) I do like the texting quirks that my friend and I came up with for him, though; I can show one of the messages that he sent that sort of illustrates what I mean:

Greetings Shirley. I’ll be a little late today; my sincerest apologies for not letting you know earlier! I’m seeing CJ and Johann off on their little trip. I don’t know where my mind’s been lately, otherwise I would have let you know this morning. I promise that I’ll be at our 4:00 meeting though. I wouldn’t miss it for the world! Take care. With love, Onyx.

Very formal but also very affectionate: he starts each text with “Greetings ___” and ends it with an actual goodbye/farewell/with love, Onyx, haha. He’s also extremely apologetic for any little inconvenience.

21- Wild card! Talk about anything to do with this character! Anything at all!

Onyx is a special guy for me because he really wasn’t supposed to exist. Before he existed, I had his daughter CJ Caine as one of my few OCs. She was a character who struggled with daddy issues, and I imagined that it was because she had a bad dad who ignored her/didn’t believe that she was capable of doing anything, and that the dad died and she needed to overcome those problems and stop living in his shadow. But after writing a little story where CJ’s dad encountered the Thief Bros, I wound up wanting him to live.

I drew him and gave him a name, and he wound up becoming one of my favourite characters, and while he and CJ still have issues, they’re able to reconcile part way through my long Khat-Caine family fic. He’s kind of a personal character for me, we have a lot of similarities (unfortunately fdjkhfdfd) I really enjoy coming up with new ideas and AUs for him and making him into a more well-rounded character.

#onyx caine #ocs #thank you so much!!

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bokunoheroanalysisforthefuture · 4 years

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Alright, and I am back with another update! But first, some stuff a friend noticed in the first few pages and mentioned to me that I didn’t take in when I went over them on my own the first time:

The park they’re in as kids is pretty close to the apartment complex Izuku and his mom live in! Considering that said apartment complex is right there in the background. Which probably isn’t a huge thing, but a neat thing to note.

The age these kids manifest their quirks at seems to be more preteen / teenage years, though I don’t know whether that’s just because it is later activation or because there were (subtle) quirks before that, with the glowing baby just being the one that had people sit up and realize something was actually going on.

Endeavor ad! And it has the time of that event that day, too - 8:14 AM! I wonder what he’s advertising… or perhaps it’s a news report? An interview of some kind? It might just be a ‘breaking news, we got Endeavor on our channel’ sort of thing. The only part that I can read is the first three katakana for the biggest text, which is ‘E-n-de’ and matches the wiki’s katakana for ‘Endeavor’. If anyone can get a good enough look at the smaller text in order to tell me what the rest says, I would appreciate it!

Just a few things, but obviously I need to up my observation game if I want to catch all this stuff!

[No. 1 - Midoriya Izuku: Origin]

So now we’re at Aldera / Orudera Junior High, with Izuku’s class being in their last year before high school. Since Japan’s schools start on the second week of April, we know this has to be that first week of school, because Katsuki’s still 14 and his birthday is April 20th, which would almost always be the third week of April / second week of school.

What is that writing stance. You are going to have an old man’s back by the time you graduate high school. I mean, I wouldn’t know anything about that personally, cough cough…

Anyways! We get a look at Izuku’s class and their quirks, and what a collection. Also, with an attitude like that, no wonder this school is seen as bad, like, what the fuck dude. Not exactly a competent homeroom teacher, are you?

The ones that I can see, from leftmost row to rightmost row, are [1] floating hair, stretchy fingers, dark matter, [2] smokey arms, spike fists, stretchy eyes, frog throat, some sort of flash/illumination quirk, [3] rocky body, ???, stretchy neck, flamethrower arms, extra arms, [4] sharp hair, big chompers, wedge face, [quirkless], mouth face (seen in the next panel and holy FUCK new sleep paralysis demon), [5] horns, telekinesis, [explosion], buff bod, ???, [6] wind control, ???

WHY.

But yeah, this also establishes the first rule of ‘don’t use quirks in school’ thing that… also gets promptly ignored the several other times we see stuff set in this school. Which, what a shock, people sort of sliding around inconvenient rules.

Anyways, Katsuki has proven that he hasn’t changed since those first few childhood panels way back (checks) ten pages ago. And Izuku is being… very shy and trying to avoid drawing attention. But no shaking, particularly, just… wallflower mode, more like.

But yeah, Katsuki is not exactly on great terms with the rest of the class, who are rightfully pissed off at him treating them rudely and calling them extras. Though honestly, I’m surprised that they’re surprised he’s aiming for UA, it’s not like he wouldn’t have been obvious about that for, like, years at this point. You’d think they’d all roll their eyes and be like ‘yeah yeah we’ve heard this spiel before’ or something. IDK.

Oh man, and Izuku already KNOWS what’s coming, look at how he’s hiding his face!

Katsuki is, of course, Fucking Extra and hops on his desk, and gets right into bragging, where, AGAIN, this should have been stuff this class has known about for ages, why are they so shocked?? And huh, interesting, he’s not only interested in surpassing All Might, but also in being one of the richest people in the world. Wow, I cannot even with him, especially knowing he lives in this house in particular:

Which, it should be clear, is an EXPENSIVE lifestyle when most families live in modest apartments because of space being so valuable in Japan.

God this is a fantastic image. I wanna frame it on a wall somewhere. Hori managed to convey all the emotions in one face and I admire the man for it.

With the whole class laughing, there’s a thing I want to note that fandom seems to not pay attention to: they note that Izuku gets good grades! I’ve seen fics that basically have him forced to sabotage his own grades to avoid getting backlash, but like… no, I don’t think that’s actually a thing.

[Also an aside, we finally see one more class quirk, which seems to be some sort of bulked up arm? It looks a bit like mummy bandages, as far as I can tell.]

Izuku gets into defending himself, saying there’s no precedent, but he IS defending himself against them, so again, he’s not cowering as much as some people seem to think he does based on fics, and clearly he’s still willing to stand up for himself to some degree.

...then of course, Katsuki blows up Izuku’s desk and sends Izuku sprawling. And is pissed that Izuku apparently thinks he, who is quirkless, can somehow be on the same level as Katsuki. Izuku swears up and down that it’s not about Katsuki, that he just really wants to try, and this somehow pisses Katsuki off even more.

I want you all to remember this image - save it on your computers, bookmark this post, whatever you need to do. We’ll come back to it in, oh (checks watch) about 284 chapters. Or maybe sooner in a separate post where I can put it under read more and avoid spoiling people more than this does. Because DAMN can I gush on this moment.

Anyways, we have a change of scene, right after noon, with a thief with a sludge transformation and,,,,,,,, legs and pants,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Where the fuck did those pants go, sir. Sir. What the fuck, sir.

Also, we get our first meeting with the OG dad, the sunflower man himself, who blooms into 255 kilos of muscle in one panel. Also, man I forgot about the fucking giraffe neck Hori used to draw him with, holy heck, why are you so l o n g.

L O N G.

...right, anyways, back to the school, which is apparently over for the day. The rest of the class is heading out, and Izuku’s back to his chipper self, even humming a happy note as he grabs his notebook-

Before Katsuki nabs it from his hands. There are a few people who’ve hung back who notice the title and pick fun at izuku, so I guess Izuku actually… doesn’t talk about his desire to be a hero that much in middle school, if the others are all so surprised about it. He apparently doesn’t even make his notebooks obvious to them, since this is the first time any of them seem to be seeing it. Which I mean, it makes sense if the class will tease him for it, but like. Even with Katsuki stealing the book, Izuku’s not super panicked or having a nervous breakdown.

But yeah, Katsuki just blasts the book, but! It’s just the cover singed (and edges) when we know he could have demolished that book entirely. Again, he’s definitely being a bully and a jerk here, but he’s got way more self-control than fandom likes to assume.

Izuku’s upset because of his damaged notebook, and Katsuki just huffs and throws it out the window while saying he’s gonna be the only kid from Aldera to go to UA. And Izuku, EVEN WHILE STRESSING, thinks of him as vain for thinking that way! That’s not the first thought of someone too terrified to do anything.

Edit: As pointed out to me in [this post], it was Katsuki’s crony who was thinking of him as vain, not Izuku. My bad!

Also note the lack of damage to Izuku’s school uniform. I know I’ve seen fics where there’s a hole made and a burn scar left that Izuku has to tend to, but Katsuki, again, has not directly used his quirk against Izuku. We’ve never seen it, just the smoke and flash used for intimidation. I’m getting more and more confident that Katsuki has never actually used his quirk against a person, which I’m probably gonna get a bit more into during the battle training in a few chapters.

But yeah, the cronies / extras basically call Izuku lame and that he can’t face reality. And then we get this scene:

That’s not the face of someone afraid. That’s Izuku’s determined face.

Izuku is about to stand up to Katsuki again. The way he always has, the way he always will. There has never been a point in the series where Izuku has NOT stood up to Katsuki when he feels it matters, and that’s part of the reason Katsuki is so pissed with him every time he does - because Izuku REFUSES to see his place! Not once!

(Please, for the love of god, respect the Izuku who didn’t need a quirk to stand up to others. Who isn’t ‘broken’ or ‘terrified’ of Katsuki or anything like that. He’s a stubborn kid and we Stan That.)

Izuku, however, is not confident enough in this situation to want to press the issue, so he relents and says nothing when Katsuki prods him to escalate things. And then we immediately get to the ‘you idiot, don’t fucking suicide bait!’ but you can tell it’s been a stressful few moments for him.

So yeah, the summary of this section is ‘Izuku is not an uwu suffering babey, and Katsuki is way more restrained than people seem to think.’

I’m cutting it off here since, again, we got a lot of info and character examination, and honestly this whole chapter is a long ass one (55 pages!!!!) and it’s establishing the entire setting from the ground up. And honestly, I’m just vibing in being Right about how I’ve been viewing the characters at the start of the series… even if i am guilty of sometimes playing with fanon for my own means…

Still, this is fun! Hopefully y’all are having fun too!

#chapter 1 #opening arcs #readthrough #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #midoriya izuku #bakugou katsuki #yagi toshinori #we respect canon characterizations in this household #I love how hori handles characters and I will definitely be taking notes through this #this time with the formatting done BEFORE I post it

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Green Eggs and Ham Reviews: Car (Patreon Review for Emma Fici) “The Green Eggs and Ham Circle of Hell”

Hello all you happy people! And welcome back to my monthly reviews of green eggs and ham for my patron Emma Fici. If you too want a review a month simply join the 5 dollar tier on my patreon, link is HERE. Join soon won’t you, new month starts saturday and if you join by then i’ll add your review to the schedule and the 5 dollars helps reach my next set of stretch goals. So join me won’t you?

Plugging aside we’re back as Sam and Guy finally properly hit the road, we find out just waht the chickaraffe is like, and find out from Michelle that you can somehow make a second impression even worse than an already odiious first impression. So with no real background to cover join me under the cut on the road to meepville, come on inside.

Previously on Green Eggs and Ham: Guy Am I, a failed inventor failed once again in front of a large audience, leaving his dreams broken and himself planning to head to Meepville to take a job watching paint dry. He met Sam I Am, an enegetic animal thief whose desperate for friends, and accidentally swapped suitcases with him, leading to Sam ending up with the Chickaraffe, a rare animal Sam swiped from the zoo. We also let Michelle a smothering mother who treats her child EB terribly by overprotecting her and is in general a smug consdesencing bitch, our main villian Snerz who has someone bringing him the meep and the BAD GUYS, a mysterious mismatched duo after the chickaraffe.

We pick up where we left off: Guy is being stalked by a mysterious shadow. of the chickaraffe.. only for it to turn out to be a friendly, cuddly creature as you’d expect, if a bit destructive as it destroys all the vases in the room, which comically are expensive and in general casuses chaos. it’s a fun scene. Guy gets it to sleep BREIFLY when his complimentary lullabye shows up, but it wakes right after due to the door slamming.

Meanwhile Sam discovers the Chickaraffe, which he plans to take to Meepville, is gone, and we get a cut to Smerz who is not pleased his chickaraffe is delayed by someone and threatnes to put them in his wall if they don’t bring the chickaraffe on time because he’s the kind of sadistic dick who already puts a bunch of animals in a wall for his own viewing pleasure, why wouldn’t he threaten murder or imprinsment for slight inconvenience. We catch up with said BAD GUYZ with Mcwinkle sugarcoating the fact the boss is not happy, and Gluntz not only catching onto that.. but also having alreayd found their perp as Sam bought his kite polevault and snorkel from Lem’s Kite Polevault and Snorkel (”Plummeting out of business”). While they do that Guy gets Sam’s adress from Donna. So it turns out sometimes giving your adress out to random strangers CAN pan out. The last time I did that I got shived by a guy dressed like soundwave on my front lawn.

Naturally given Guy’s luck he winds up running into the bad guys who mistake him for the thief given he has the chickaraffe, and back him into a cliff with a net gun because that’s what BAD GUYS do.. or rather people with that acronym who don’t get how due process or a misunderstanding works. Thankfully Sam swipes their car and rescues guy .. it also has a bunch of hats trailing for some reaosn I don’t know what that’s all about.

So with our heroes to the road, they swap plans... well more like Sam tells his of taking the chikaraffe to meepville and Guy sorta grunts out that he’s going to watch paint dry, with Sam.. not impressed at all and clearly feeling like he’s giving up on his dreams.. Which he is, and to Sam’s credit he’s TRYING to be tactful. Trying is the key word but given the man has no real filter tha’ts understandable. Guy not wanting ot be an accesory to crime gets out and decides to hitchike. Same TRIES to get him to stay because he’s clingy like that, but eventually leaves and Guy is left to wander the desert.

And it’s here... my patience for Michelle runs out. Guy is trying thitchike she passes by, SLOWLY, as in the same speed as walking.. and not only puts up a bunch of security btu calls him a weirdo, without actually ASKING why he’s in the desert asking fo ra drive, assumes he’s going to hurt her and her daughter and says all this within earshot, something he calls her out on. I already had little patience for the character but I assumed you know sh’ed get better, maybe have some depths or something that explained why she’ such a bitch. But no amount of depth can really.. excuse the way she acts. I GET wnating to help keep her daughter safe, I do , I get not wanting to pick up randos on the side of the road. Both things are necessary. But Guy... is clearly not dangerous, clearly not doing anything, and clearly about to pass out from heat stroke.. and you just ignore him and assume i’ts his fault because your a self righteous, smug, selfish sampler platter of bitch. I get she’s supposed to have an arc, so are Guy and Sam.. but Guy and Sam are LIKEABLE. Guy is a bit grumpy but beaten down by life and the world and Sam’s a bit in your face, but is clearly deeply lonely. BOth have things that justify it. Michelle is later revealed to have lost her husband apparently, so I know she has some depth and some reason for how she acts with ehr daguther.. but how she treats guy in both episodes so far just makes her so unlikeable and there’s NTOHING to explain it. She just makes assumptions about him for stupid reasons and treats him like garbage and it’s nto nearly as funny as the series thinks. I do not look forward to 11 more episodes with this character and feel any time she’s on screen she drains the energy out of a show tha’ts bursting with it.

Thankfully she’s gone for the rest of the episode, so Guy is free to have a horrifying heat induced nightmare about green eggs and ham.

Yup. in the best part of the episode, Guy has a small breakdown and we get a horrifying and wonderful acid sequence wher ethe road melts, he’s stalked by green eggs, and ham, which is everywhere, and when he thinks he’s getting some rain it’s in fact green egg drippings. It’s just so delightfully batshit and unexpected. I love EVERYTHING about this. I admit when I woke up today and turned htis on I wasn’t expecting Guy to end up in a heastroke induced nightmarish hellscape with living green eggs and ham, nor did I ever expect htat but I can’t say i’m dispaointed.

He snaps out of it when Sam shows up. Unsuprisingly Sam didn’t want to leave without him, and simply looped around having picke dup some green eggs and ham and some hot and cold choclate.. naturally he accidnetly gives guy the hot choclate first. Still it shows that beneath is all too pushy and needy demeanour.. Sam’s a good guy and genuinely WANTS to help well.. Guy. He looped around entirely aware Guy wouldn’t find a ride probably but would be too stubborn to accept it if he kept pushing so he simply went to get him some help.

Even Guy’s stubborn Grumpusness can’t fight dying of heatstroke so he relucntantly agrees to be travel buddies and Sam nicely agrees to drive while the poor guy get somre rest, especially since the whole escapade with the chikarafffe liekly means he’s gotten no sleep whatsoever.

And so as the episode ends this naturally goes pear shaped as Guy wakes up to find the car about to tumble over a cliff into a lake. TO BE CONTINUED. Next month

FInal THoughts: This episode was okay. I didn’t like it as much as the premire nor really have as much to say about it, as it just wans’t as deep... it was still VERY funny, with tons of great gags i glossed over, like Gluntz having the party she set up for her partner, he intends for this to be his last job, slowly back away as the job’s now longer thanks to Sam and Guy getting away. But while the first half is fine with plenty of energy, jokes and plto progression the second half just stalls: outside of the green eggs and ham circle of hell, there’s really just not a lot that’s funny, with Michelle being ungodly obnoxious and sam being a bit obnoxious, coming on a bit strong with Guy and never once apoologizing to him for getting him nearly captured and arrested. It just drags on and on a bit, and it just isn’t funny to see poor guy tourture dfor rightfully not wanting ot travel with someone who nearly got him captured by shady goons, or get rejected a ride by a self righteous harpy. It’s not TERRIBLE, I still can’t wait to see what happens next, but it’s a marked step down after last episode.

And i’ll see you next month for next episode, here tommorow for the next chapter of life and times and if you fancy joining my patreon, I inend to have an exclusive review of Thunder Force up sometime this week. Until the next rainbow it’s been a pleasure.

#green eggs and ham #netflix #sam I am #guy am I #michelle #eb #gluntz #mcwinkle #snerz #dr seuss

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ivysaur-evo · 4 years

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MAJOR PERSONA 5 ROYAL SPOILERS

Alright, I’m going to talk about Throw Your Mask Away, since I already talked about Beneath The Mask.

Focusing on two of the most important verses that stick out to me especially. The Phantom Thieves as a whole for the first one, and Akira as the focus for the second.

This one is repeated many times.

(“It doesn’t have to be like this”) “Don't sleep through dreams that can come true/don’t let go of your dreams. No more tears shall drop from your cheeks anymore, you won't need to strive for greatness. Believe in me, that you don't need to suffer from anything (no more).”

“Don’t sleep through dreams that can come true.” The final palace is based on the “perfect reality” the ruler wishes to make. They can make their dreams come true, after all.

Say that this “sleep” is referencing humanity’s ability to move on without focusing on the things that have wronged them. They’re “sleeping” on their old dreams. But now they can come true. They need to wake up, and acknowledge the fact that they can help. They can bring back those hidden dreams.

The other line brought up later in the verse is “don’t let go of your dreams” (pretty self explanatory, but important, so I’m still including it). They don’t have to let go of their former (or hidden) dreams if they don’t sleep through and ignore them.

“No more tears shall drop from your cheeks anymore.” Honestly I’m pretty sure most, if not all, of the Phantom Thieves have cried, minus Akira and maybe a few of the male characters (cause y’know stereotypical “men don’t cry”) , at least not on camera. They’ve all definitely cried off camera, whether or not that was because of their broken past dreams or inconveniences that took place along their Phantom Thief Journeys.

“you won't need to strive for greatness.” They don’t have to be Phantom Thieves to be happy, to have meaning. They can regain their old dreams, they don’t have to “strive for greatness”, I feel as though that one is pretty straightforward in itself, though I figured I’d talk about it still.

“Believe in me, that you don't need to suffer from anything (no more).” The palace ruler is here to make a deal, after all, that’s their goal. They want people to stick to their dreams, to follow them. If they believe the ruler can, and turn a blind eye to reality, then they can. And they can be happy. They won’t have to suffer, just...choose to be oblivious, and you can live happily. They need not suffer from their past, a message relayed many times.

“You can throw your mask away, no more pretending. You've been tied down for the longest of the time. Be free, you deserve better, you should forever be free.”

When looking at Beneath The Mask, and assuming that the song was directed at Akira, we can imagine that this one is also directed at Akira in ways/Perhaps The Phantom Thieves as a whole, as it plays throughout the final boss. For simplicity, as I stated earlier, I’m going to only go into Akira’s character, and perhaps I’ll edit the others in later.

“You can throw your mask away, no more pretending”, The palace ruler is telling him that he can release the thing he’s hiding behind, he doesn’t have to live with the pain of isolation with himself. He doesn’t have to pretend. He can just...be himself, if only be chooses to accept the deal he was offered.

“You’ve been tied down for the longest of the time”, Akira’s record has been stopping him from doing so much, on top of all of the awful things that happened during his stay. For so long this young boy has been tied down. So much pain, so much stress. That could stop if he just...accepted the deal. He could have all that hope back, all those possibilities.

“Be free, you deserve better, you should forever be free” Akira deserves to have a normal life. No record, no phantom thieves, no rotten adults. He deserves to be a normal teenager, hanging out with his friends...being happy. So why the hell isn’t he accepting the deal. What’s wrong with what the palace ruler is doing? He could be free, it’s what he deserves.

You think I’m done? Hell no. I’d like to rerun the last one, and bring you back to a certain social link.

Being “free”. What does that even mean? Is it being free from his past? His trauma? His record? There’s one social link in particular that mentions what it means to be free.

“Being free...well, it’s how I feel when I’m with you”.

Being free doesn’t have to be from some twisted reality. Ryuji found himself free, not from being relieved of his past, but from something he gained FROM that said past. He found where he’s free without the help of the palace rulers’ basically mind manipulation. Your past being ridden doesn’t have to make you feel free. If Ryuji’s freedom stems from being friends with Akira, it can happen to anyone...to ALL the thieves. They’re family, not by blood, obviously, but found. Who needs a “perfect” life when you already have one.

As long as they have each other, and the future that’s THEIRS for the making, they don’t need that reality. They can find their own freedom, without the chains the palace ruler is trying to place.

Thanks for listening!!

#persona #persona series #persona 5 #p5 #p5r #persona 5 royal #persona 5 royal spoilers #p5r spoilers #akira kurusu #ren amamiya #the phantom thieves #ryuji sakamoto #aki’s thoughts #aki’s rants

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alex-writes-things · 3 years

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Writing Character Deaths

SPOILERS: Hunger Games, potentially BBC Sherlock, Divergent

Writing character deaths is one of my favourite things to do, actually. If you do it right it can be really beautiful, moving, shocking and very rewarding for you, the writer. In this post I’ll give tips on when it’s good to kill characters and how to make the death sadder!

And scroll to the end to find some of my favourite quotes about death.

I’m a strange person. I cry when pets die in books, every time, without fail, just bawling my eyes out over a fictional cat/hamster/frog. Yet I have only once cried over an actual human character death (in a book)? So do with that information what you will.

(the character was from Salt To The Sea, a must read, btw!)

Good times to kill characters :D

-When it’s necessary to drive forward the main/side plot, end a side plot, change or end a character arc, steer the plot or characters in a different direction, etc. basically, will it help the plot? Or are you just doing it for shock factor?

-When it’s making a point, whether politically, socially or for other reasons!

-When they’re NOT the only LGBT+ character, POC, or other minority character. I know this is said often, but the more people educated about this, the better. Seriously, it’s so harmful.

-As a consequence of a previous or ongoing event. Your death needs to make sense, and to make it satisfying for a reader in the way it is where it still makes readers emotional, it should happen with good reason!

-When either the character is very insignificant/a minor character, or the reader has built up enough emotional attachment to the character that it evokes emotion.

-consider deeply the cause of death and whether it is realistic within your story

Making the character death sadder

-create a relationship not just between the protagonist and the character but between the reader and the character, and make sure the reader cares about the character!

-kill a character just before their character arc finishes/just before they reach their goal

-avoid cringey dialogue and cliches. this will only make the reader cringe and peel away the authenticity you’ve worked so hard for! if they’re reading something they’ve seen before, it won’t affect them so much.

-make sure the pacing of the death reflects the storyline, for instance consider where a short or gradual death would be appropriate

-don’t foreshadow TOO much. however, if the reader is rereading your story, it might be made more sad if they realise that all along there were signs. make sure this isn’t noticeable the first time around though!

-show the characters through all of their grief, especially the stages of anger and denial.

-watch bbc sherlock, The Reichenbach Fall, and cry, and then re-watch and take notes okay thanks xx

-emphasise the injustice of the situation or the potential that was lost. an example of this is finnick from the hunger games. no, i am not okay.

-make the character suffer before they pass :(

-think about whether the death was preventable. If there’s something that could have been done, but wasn’t, perhaps leading to guilt, great disappointment, conflict between characters (I’m thinking Tris and Christina, Divergent, Will’s death) etc.

Quotes about life and death

“I know so many last words. But I will never know hers.” ― John Green, Looking for Alaska

“You don't go to death. Death comes to you.” ― Haig Matt, The Midnight Library

"You saved my life. Why couldn't I save yours?" — Jennifer Niven (All the Bright Places)

"Death ends a life, not a relationship." — Mitch Albom (Tuesdays with Morrie)

“I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it." — Neil Gaiman (American Gods (American Gods, #1))

"A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it." — Oscar Wilde

"I don't want to die without any scars." — Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club)

"I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it." — Mark Twain

"It kills me sometimes, how people die." — Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)

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gelatinbfb · 4 years

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leafy character analysis i wrote in a quick brain explosion state, enjoy :)

(also pls dont think i hate leafy bcz i can sound mean here i love her a lot as a character and im just willing to point out how i think she is lol n i find her rly interesting)

under the cut !

leafy values others a LOT and its evident by her simply wanting to help her friends as much as possible in every way she can even if its not helpful for herself. she thrives on the help she gives to others because she cares THAT much. while that is a big deal she still can be very egotistical and sees her good deeds as very important and while she IS helpful she can end up being very not-humble about it. and she tends to get controlling and freaked out over others not accepting her help (because she can be VERY overbearing) since she expects a positive reaction ALL the time from others. she does have her limits when it comes to helping ofc like when she only accepted to help pen if he gave smthng in return

leafy cant process or comprehend how others could simply refuse her help anyways and since she is Very emotional she instantly gets pissy. and also bcz of her tendency to be a bit self absorbed and overly-proud of her "helpfullness" it makes it worse. you can also kinda see her control-freak attitude and high self image by her neverending niceness chart and putting everyone in boxes

when firey basically was friends with her in a STABLE manner unlike any other friendship leafy had, and when he ditched her for a silly misunderstanding it basically broke her and twisted her around making her show off her vengeful side entirely and turn more harmful and greedy rather than the always helpful jolly person she tries to be/ends up being like

its important for me to mention here that leafy sees others as beneath her imo, even if she doesnt like to admit it/doesnt realize it consciously. a lot of times her helping for others resembles somebody pitying somebody and underestimating their abilities or babying them basically, this kinda shows her controlling nature tbh ..

leafy has a tendency to be controlling probably bcz she freaks out upon any dis-order esp others disliking her or not accepting her help

after being chased and almost executed over being a thief and having everybody hate her she did kinda mellow down and lose it so ig thats where the wanting to stab and throw knives at everyone came from..

in bfdia (in general) she did end up being kinda annoyed and vengeful over people yet still w anting to be friends cuz she was lonely (obviously) and wanted to be on good terms with everyone again lol

in bfb.. shes more of a disaster

after experiencing all that shit she is still overly helping and all but the exact same controlling freaking out leafy

upon gaty just wanting some time to think and not blindly accept her friendship leafy jsut instantly gets angry and annoyed which shows her sheer impatience upon anyone rejecting her or her actions (yet again..)

she grabbed her team members for beep JUST by seeing who needed help the most in her eyes,, even if they were not in any need of help she decided on it herself. this just shows me more of her thinking that others cant take care of themselves and leafy thinking she is a deity or some shit to others just bcz she helps people she views as "incapable" lol

and while she IS still very friendly and willing to help her nasty side shows a lot upon anyone being an inconvenience, aka balloony lol,, , in times like these i rly wonder if leafy actually cares for others from a level deeper than exclusively the surface because she ends up being SO controlling. especially with how she has a loyalty chart and bossess around everyone in her team and uses them when its necessary for her

perhaps she tends to be overbearing and more controlling when shes under some sort of pressure, in this case the contests perhaps,, she can end up forgetting or not giving a fuck about others as long as they do as she says because she views them as mere tools in such cases

and since shes already discomforted by lack of order and lack of control, she tries to fit everyone into boxes to do as SHE tells them to do and not anything else

i do believe leafy has good in her and she genuinely tries to help others and be nice but she is unable to realize that not everyone is in need of help and not to mention that she undermines everybody by seeing them as lesser and so trying to control them since she thinks they wont be doing things right if it isnt what she tells them to do lol

i think leafy has a hard time comprehending everything around her so she relies on making charts and keeping track on others relationships with her and how much she trusts them etc etc but since thats not how people Work it ends up being harmful since she expects everyone to fit her views and how she comprehends them, she ends up believeing no one else but herself has free will and a mind of their own (which continues the cycle of her trying to help in a fit of pity and power hunger to keep her world/mental state together)

in the end leafy is very in need of more self realization and trying to care for others feelings and needs in a way that OTHERS have and not the way she views them as being, and her loving others deeply wont solve her issues with listening to what they actually want

#leafy bfdi #leafy bfb #character analysis #bfdi #bfb #g.txt

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applepi1101 · 3 years

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ahahaha wouldn’t it be funny if I sent in a request for Mara asking for all of the questions to be answer, - [|87

oh boy this is gonna be a long one :,)

What is your character's reaction to a minor inconvenience? Such as getting their jumper caught on a door handle?

He'd probably frown a little and just continue on with his day. nothing too dramatic

Tea, coffee, hot chocolate or other?

he loves hot chocolate!! with marshmallows!!

What does their safe space look like?

just anywhere that can also be a good hiding place.. preferably with a friend or something so he's safe and not alone.

What do they consider to be an unforgivable action? Why?

He's generally very forgiving so its hard to think of anything.. he'd have a hard time forgiving anyone who puts his friends in danger,, but unless they try to kill him or something he's fine..

Do they have any nicknames or pet names or other aliases?

not really,, his name is pretty short so there's no need for a nickname (maybe dollboy would give him a special name sign? but that's all i can think of)

What kind of books comfort them? What books help them heal after a hard day?

he likes books about animals/bugs! (especially the ones with pictures) but after a stressful day he just likes to read children's stories,,,,

Are they a naturally assertive person or are they painfully shy?

he's quiet but i wouldn't say he's overly shy,, though he is more on the shy side of the spectrum.

Do they consider themselves a friendly person or aloof?

he thinks he's friendly! he understands why some people would think he's kind of aloof though..

What is your character's trigger point? What makes them angry, sad or makes them go off?

if he believes that he has nothing to lose then he will go apeshit. take that as you will.

What kind of jokes make them laugh?

he really likes stupidly put together jokes, that are actually kind of clever (so.. puns..)

Do they enjoy pranks or do they hate them? Are they likely to fall for a prank?

he would definitely fall for a prank, he doesnt mind them as long as they arent too dangerous.

Are they an overall healthy person? Do they make for a good patient or a terror?

He would be a great patient if he didn't ask so many damn questions (help him,, he just wants to be a nurse,,) an he's pretty healthy!! well.. as healthy as you can be while living in the pale city..

Describe your character's typical wardrobe for the regular day.

he wears the same thing every day.. stinky.. but he really likes his scarf and coat,,, he has nothing under the coat (save for some shorts) so he much prefers to have it on,, even if its a little warm,,

Are they a simple person to please or difficult?

simple, just be nice to him and he will never leave (unless you want him to).

What is the first thing people notice about them?

mmm. short.

What do they look for in a friend? A love interest?

Doll just someone nice,, he'd like to be friends with someone that he doesnt have to worry about all the time bc he,, hes so nervous most of the time anyway,, he needs a break,,

Who are they soft for? Do they find being soft easy or difficult?

hes pretty much the same towards everyone,, he might be a little more affectionate towards his friends but it just comes naturally to him.. its not something he thinks about.

Describe your character through a Brooklyn 99 gif or line.

“I only have one dream a year, always on tax day. In it, I must file an extension. So, yes, it is best not to have dreams.”

- Captain Raymond Jacob Holt, ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’.

What does your character consider to be their lowest point?

he went to the hospital to find his sister but when he got there he couldn't get past the mannequins.. he never got to see her before he was forced to run away..

Does your character have a comfort item?

party hat,, and scarf,,

What would be one item that they would hate to lose most?

his scarf!! he's grown really attached to it and its actually really useful sometimes.

What are their eating habits like? Do they snack throughout the day? Or do they eat sparsely?

he eats when he finds food.

What is your character's favourite food and who cooks it best?

he likes french fries!! he steals a few from a fast food chef,,

What are your character's special skills?

hes really good at problem solving!!

What are somethings they find difficult to do? Or say?

sometimes he has some difficulty telling his thoughts out loud.. he's not the best with words so he just has a hard time.

Are they an animal person? Do they have pets?

he loves animals!! they don't love him though :,( so no pets.

What are their opinions on children? Do they view children as sweet angels or evil crotch goblins?

hes neutral.

If your character was in today's world, what social media platforms would they avoid? Or be prominent on?

he probably wouldnt have any, he doesnt really care about that stuff

Are they an organized person? Or more laissez-faire?

hes pretty organized.

Do they dwell better in chaotic situations or more linear situations?

hes a quick thinker but without the chaos, he tends to overthink things.

Your character has been invited to a masquerade ball. What mask do they wear?

hmm,, something simple.. nothing too fancy or expensive bc hes not the biggest fan of parties

Your character is having a prom night/debs. What kind of outfit do they wear?

just a simple suit,, maybe with a funky bowtie!!

How do they act around people they don't know? Are they shy around strangers or dismissive of them?

hes a little shy, but hes also very curious!! hes mostly quiet,, just listening,,

Can your character drive? If so, what kind of driver are they? If not what's their preferred manner of transport?

no. hes a child. he walks. he did find a skateboard one time!! it was hard to actually travel on it because hes so small.. but it was still fun!!

What attracts your character to another person? What kind of person do they do for?

someone he trusts and that he can be buds with,,

Tell us something about your OC that doesn't make it onto the page?

he hums the happy birthday song when he's just hanging around!!

Your character has been kidnapped. Who has kidnapped them and how do they escape?

Probably the jantor,, mara would totally freak out (and play dead for a few minutes) while he thinks of a plan to escape.

How does your character unwind after a long day?

sleep.

What's your character's guilty pleasure?

i don't think he has any,, he just does what he does,,

Your character's friend has just been mugged. What's their reaction?

he'd probably decide what to do depending on what was taken,, for most things he'd try to console his friend but wouldn't want to go after the thief or anything.

Your character has been punched into the face. What's their reaction?

it might take him a second to realize what happened, but after he comes back to his senses he'd stay away from the person and try to get them to calm down.

Does your character celebrate their birthday? If not, why?

He'd like to!! he just doesn't know when it is..

What is the DND alignment?

Neutral Good.

Hogwarts House?

Ravenclaw.

Star Sign?

he's unaware of it but he's a virgo.

Does your character believe in anything? Religion? Superstition?

He doesn't believe in anything like that (he doesn't exactly know about that stuff?).. he might knock on wood or something just because he's seen people do that before.

What is your character's reaction when someone does something nice for them?

pretty quiet,, might blush a little because 'oh!!' he'd be very nice and definitely plan to repay the person in the future.

Is your character easy to make cry? Or angry? Or annoyed?

Not at all, he's usually pretty calm. He's quite easy to frighten though,,

What is your character's biggest fear? Most irrational?

hes so afraid of losing things.. he has very bad attachment issues please do not take his things or leave him

How does your sleep at night? Are they a heavy or light sleeper? Do they dream or have nightmares? Do they find it easy to sleep or are they more a night owl?

he doesnt really have dreams? but he's a heavy sleeper all the way,, he's aware of it though and it scares him so he doesnt sleep too often,, and he only lets himself sleep in places that he knows are safe.

#mara is just a little man....#ln oc #ln2 oc #my oc #im not. proofreading this.

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